62 VISIT TO LEON. Book I., 
CHAPTEE V. 
A Trip to Leon — Tipitapa — Connexion between the two Lakes interrupted 
— Decreasing Level of the Lake of Managua — Hot Sulphur Springs — A 
Saint's Day — Adam and Eve — Theatrical Entertainment — Managua and 
Mateares — Silver Ore and Lignite — Amber found in Nicaragua — Naga- 
rote — The Volcanic Chain of the Maribios — Pueblo Nuevo — The Cha- 
chalagua — Leon — General Munoz — The Cathedral — Proletarians of Leon 
— A French Colonization Project — Gold Mines of Matagalpa — Extensive 
Gold Region. 
On the 12th of January, 1851, I left Granada on a visit 
to Leon, the capital of Nicaragua. The direct road leads 
to Masaya, but intending to pass there on my way back, I 
took the direction to Tipitapa, a village thirty miles to the 
north of Granada, situated on the channel connecting the 
lake of Nicaragua with that of Managua, but which had 
been dried up by an earthquake in 1844. 
I crossed a plain overgrown with shrubs and trees, 
where I saw or heard numerous monkeys, parrots, macaws,, 
curassows, pigeons, and other birds that I did not recognize* 
In passing I shot a pair of beautiful pigeons, of a species' 
called morena, for my supper. This is the largest of seven 
different species which I have observed in Nicaragua, being 
of the size of our common domestic pigeon, and of a 
brownish rose-colour. In the evening I arrived at Tipitapa 
and took up my abode in the house of a man of distinction 
in the village, where I found such accommodations for the 
night as a traveller has a right to expect in Central 
America. 
The next morning I went to see what is called the river 
and falls of Tipitapa, but which I found to be the dry 
